‘The Pitt’s Best Season 2 Detail Is a Subtle Nod to ‘ER’ You May Have Missed

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Pitt Season 2.

Since its premiere in early 2025, The Pitt has given the medical drama genre a much-needed boost. The HBO Max series, currently airing its second season, takes a real-time approach to a city emergency room, with every episode covering a single hour in a hectic day shift. With an ensemble made up of both experienced and still-learning medical professionals, The Pitt has earned overwhelming praise for its realistic depiction of an overflowing ER, and Season 3 is already on the way.

There are very few medical shows like The Pitt, but it has drawn numerous comparisons to another ground-breaking title in the genre: ER. The 15-season hit redefined how hospitals were shown on TV and launched countless careers, including a then-unknown George Clooney. The Pitt was created by former ER producer R. Scott Gemmill, is produced by ER showrunner John Wells, and is led by ER‘s ostensible lead, Noah Wyle. By exploring a very different medical reality and adopting its own storytelling rhythm, The Pitt is decidedly its own show. Still, its creative team is no doubt very aware of the path ER paved for them, and Season 2 is quietly paying tribute to its predecessor.

‘The Pitt’ Season 2 Subtly Calls Back to ‘ER’s Costumes

The Pitt Season 2’s biggest crisis thus far begins when Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center is threatened with a cyberattack. As a preventative measure, the internet and all the computers have been shut off, forcing the staff to revert to a pre-digital emergency department. This almost immediately poses a challenge, particularly for the younger doctors who have only ever worked with online charts and orders, leading Charge Nurse Dana (Katherine LaNasa) to call in a former employee with experience in an analog ER. Episode 9 sees the arrival of Rusty Schwimmer‘s Monica, a nurse who, as she puts it, was “laid off by the digital revolution.” She’s sporting a floral-patterned scrub coat when she arrives, and for ER fans, it might look familiar. It is similar to a coat worn by Haleh (Yvette Freeman), one of ER‘s most prominent recurring nurses, in Season 9. Though it isn’t clear if it is the same exact piece of clothing, it’s a clever visual reference all the same.

The Pitt has avoided making more overt references to ER, but it’s inevitable that viewers will think of the two shows together, considering their premises and creative teams. Rather than bringing in high-profile cameos from major ER stars like Clooney or Anthony Edwards, or making meta quips about Dr. Robby’s time as a med student, The Pitt is focusing on the realistic details that have a place in all medical dramas, reminding viewers that these situations might be dramatized for television, but they’re not so far off from the real world.

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‘The Pitt’ Season 2 Puts Even More of the Spotlight on the Nurses

By calling back to ER‘s characters and costuming, The Pitt is offering both a smart little Easter egg for fans and referencing the deeper history at play here. ER aired from 1994 to 2009, covering a time before tablets replaced clipboards and the COVID-19 pandemic completely shattered the status quo for healthcare. The medical professionals on that show regularly had to write orders and patient charts by hand, and they had to keep everything straight without the help of a computerized system. Usually, it was the nurses who kept everything running smoothly, as they’d often be left to write up and submit orders for labs or medications.

Perhaps the strongest connection between ER and The Pitt thus far has been their insistence that nurses are the lifeblood of any emergency department. It was a common refrain on ER, and The Pitt Season 2 even dedicated a whole episode to PTMC’s nursing staff. That installment was an overt acknowledgment of their contributions to hospitals, and Monica’s role in the season is a subtler tribute. Wearing that scrub coat establishes her as a nurse who worked in the early 2000s, the same era that ER thrived in. As she was laid off when the hospital went more digital, she’s only ever worked in an analog emergency room, so she isn’t floundering like the others.

Monica’s ability to remain focused and give order to the chaotic department seems like a superhuman feat, but it’s also exactly how nurses used to do their jobs decades ago. It looks natural on ER, but as The Pitt has hammered home this season, the medical field has drastically changed, and though tech has made some things easier, it’s also altered the skills these professionals rely on. Monica’s arrival at PTMC — and the outfit she’s elected to wear — is a striking callback to a different time and a poignant tribute to the impressive contributions of nurses from all decades.